Personal Home Planetarium

The HomeStar Pro by Sega Toys is the improved version of their original HomeStar Home Planetarium, with an LED projection that is 3 times brighter than the original. It is still recommended that the device be used in as close to total darkness as possible. In addition to the moving view of the Northern sky, the “Pro” also comes with an additional plate projection of a full moon, in great detail.

A wonderful educational gift for children, especially those who live in urban areas where the city lights obscure all but the brightest stars, making telescope viewing less practical.

The HomeStar Pro Home Planetarium is available from AudioCubes for $329.00.

You can view this 4 minute Japanese infomercial for the HomeStar Pro on YouTube.

Of course, if you live out in big-sky country, someplace like the American mid-west, you can always just, you know, look up at the sky.

---

Rose Planetarium

For us city-dwellers that want the big experience, there is always the Rose Planetarium, or as they like to call it, The Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History’s Rose Center for Earth and Space* (it just rolls off the tongue). Their most recent production, produced in cooperation with NASA, and narrated by Robert Redford, is titled Cosmic Collisions, where viewers are invited to, “explore cosmic collisions, hypersonic impacts that drive the dynamic and continuing evolution of the universe.” Whooa…

* Or when addressing the name of the museum wing itself: The Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest, Rose Center for Earth and Space, Featuring the Hayden Planetarium. Not that we want to confuse anyone.

Waiting to Ship

We’ve seen this happen many times- An exceptional product that for whatever reason, never makes it to market. These are three excellent product designs that, as of today, have yet to make it into consumer’s hands.

The Jawbone

Jawbone has now been signed up with Cingular (which will soon simply be AT&T Mobile), to distribute its noise canceling wireless headset. They are taking pre-orders with a ship date that has yet to be announced. It looks like the only one of the three items sure to eventually hit the market. Besides having a gorgeous design, it makes claim to incorporate revolutionary noise canceling technology that allows the user to speak clearly at a conversational volume, and still be heard while calling from a noisy area. I have not demoed one myself, but their website has a well put together demo that sounds pretty convincing.

SHIFT

Though SHIFT looks like a tricycle, it is more like a learning bicycle; designed to help young children make the transition to a two wheeled bicycle- As the speed increases, the two rear wheels pull together, and widen apart again as the rider slows down. The SHIFT was designed by Purdue Industrial Design Assistant Professor Scott S. Shim, and two students, Ryan Lightbody and Matt Grossman. Although it won Taiwan’s International Bicycle Design competition, and earned itself a spot on the cover of TIME magazine, as of yet it has no manufacturer.

RollerToaster

Hot-shot industrial designer Jaren Goh has applied his skills to the age old domestic appliance, the toaster (and garnered himself a red.dot design award for his efforts). While John Q. Public living in a middle American suburban McMansion may not grasp the genius of this design, those of us who live in high density urban environments know that the first place where we lose space is in our tiny city dwelling kitchens. This space saving toaster design is brilliant in its simplicity… not to mention impeccably cool. Nobody has yet been able to answer for me whether it would be safe to wall-mount.

Microrobot UBOT due for US

The Korean made UBOT, by Microrobot, is about to hit American shores, kicking Roomba ass- the American iRobot company who built the robotic vacuum market here in the US, better act fast if it doesn’t want the foreign competition to eat its lunch. The UBOT cleaning robot sweeps, then vacuums, then mops, all in one robotic apparatus (Estimated cost, $700US).

The UBOT is quite a bit larger than a Roomba, as well. Though iRobot calls the Roomba a vacuuming robot, technically it only sweeps- it does not produce suction, the UBOT does. iRobot’s new Scooba is a mopper. The top end Roomba model sells for $350, while the top of the line Scooba is $400.

Look to see more house chore robot competitors hit the market in the next year, including laundry folding robots.